A Different Path
by Psycho Sin Mafia
Summary: AU: What is Malak had been the one to activate the Mass Shadow Generator? With his death, Revan turns to the only remaining person she can trust. Now, as Master and Apprentice, they wage a brutal war against the Republic, and seek the power Bastila Shan holds. Can Bastila hold out against the Sith without falling? or will she learn why the heros have become the villians.
1. Chapter 1

Star Wars is not mine. Kotor and Kotor 2 are not mine. I merely enjoy writing stories and thought this would be something I would enjoy writing. This is a Dark side female Revan, Dark Side Male exile story. Since in this story the exile, who goes by the name Jace Ogden, never went back to the Jedi Council for Trial, he was never exiled, ergo he will not be called exile. It occurred to me that I haven't seen a story about if Malak died in the Mandalorian wars, and since I enjoy femaleRevan/maleExile stories, I thought I'd try it.

Darth Revan, the dark lady of the Sith stood on the bridge of her ship, the Vengeance, watching the battle between her Sith forces and the forces of the Republic. The fight was going well so far, the starfighters her army piloted were far superior to those the Republic used, due to the immense power of the Star Forge. Suddenly, she felt the force presence of her apprentice. Lifting her comlink up, she established contact with him.

"This had better be important Jace." She said, using his real name, rather than his new name of Darth Judicar.

"The Jedi are sending a strike team onto your ship to take you out. Judging by their force presence I'd say at least a dozen or so. I can't tell from here. But according to my spies, Bastila Shan is among them." he reported. Revan smiled beneath her mask. Bastila Shan had the rare power of Battle Meditation, which made her an interesting opponent. Even as amazing as a field strategist as her apprentice was, even he found himself out outmatched by Bastila, due to the battle meditation's ability to demoralize enemy troops while supporting allied troops.

"Thanks for the info. I may have myself some fun today after all." Revan replied.

"Be careful. Something about this isn't right. Why would they send their most valuable asset on a strike mission like this? It's not even a strike mission, it's a suicide mission. Even if by some miracle of the Force they kill or capture you, there's no chance of them getting off the ship. We're missing something." He said.

"You worry too much. Besides, if she's fighting me, she won't be able to use her precious battle meditation to influence the battle." She reminded him.

"That's true. And for your information, the reason I worry so much is because one of us has to, and it usually isn't you. Ahh, my counterpart is making his move, time for me to earn my pay. Judicar out." He told her as he ended the transmission. Not for the first time, Revan was glad Malak had insisted on being on the one to lead the fleet at Malachor V and be the one to activate the Mass Shadow Generator. When Malak had done so, his proximity to all of that death in the Force caused his heart to stop, killing him. Following the battle, she had managed to convince Jace Ogden to step up and become her new second in command, and later Sith apprentice. He had joined Revan and Malak very early on in the crusade against the Mandalorians and was skilled in every aspect: he was powerful in the force, knew a wide array of powers and skills, was talented in lightsaber combat, and perhaps most of all, his ability to inspire the troops and lead with an effectiveness that she doubted Malak possessed. Her apprentice was a natural leader and soldier, able to see the big picture in a way that made the Sith Lady feel that in something happened, the Sith Empire they were creating would be in capable hands. His conquest of Telos without so much as firing a shot was proof of his ability.

_He also isn't that bad to look at._ Revan thought with an amused smile as she took her lightsaber off her belt. He had later taken up her habit of wearing a mask, a white one much in the style of hers. The only time either of them took off their masks was when they were alone. It gave the impression that the ones at the top of the Sith Empire were more than human.

The Sith Lady was drawn out of her thoughts by the arrival of the Jedi Strike team, her eyes immediately focused on Bastila. She immediately began to think of several different ways to try and turn the woman to the dark side and join them, as her battle meditation would be useful in the war against the true Sith. She decided to try and coax her along over time. A hard approach might get things done quicker, but something like that may just plant some ideas of betrayal in her mind. She would have to take it slow and steady, like she did with Jace.

"Surrender Revan, you cannot win." The Padawan boldly declared. Revan took a single step forward, taking her eyes off of her, glancing at the others with her.

"I must know, do you honestly expect me to surrender myself to you when I so clearly have the upper hand?" Noting that their number was much lower then what Judicar had told her, so she extended her Force Senses and found half a dozen Force presences a few levels down. It seemed like they split up and Bastila's group got to the bridge first. She was about to pull her senses back when she felt her apprentice rapidly approaching them. Figuring he had them well in hand, she returned to attention to the 5 in front of her. "I have a brilliant idea, instead of me surrendering, why don't you surrender? I'd hate to have the janitors clean your mess off my nice clean floor."

Her mockery wasn't welcome among the Jedi, judging by the angry faces they now had. One of them, a human male charged at her, his blue saber raised in a strike. Revan ignited her own saber and struck him down with a single slash across the midsection. Looking at the others, she raised an eyebrow under her mask.

"Seriously, did anyone expect that to work? Because if so, you're dumber than I thought." She taunted. The remaining Jedi wavered for a moment, before charging at her as one. Blocking a strike, she kicked Bastila in the knee and threw her back using the force to throw her back. The lightsaber skills of the Jedi were competent, but nowhere near the level of skill needed to defeat her. After a few moments the Jedi realized their attack wasn't working and stepped away.

The sounds of boots clicking on the floor drew attention to the door, where Darth Judicar walked in. The Jedi straightened; they were now caught between both Sith Lords.

"If you're hoping the other members of the strike team will make a well times rescue, you'll be waiting a while. They won't be coming. Are you sure we can't tempt you into surrendering?" He asked. Bastila bit her lip, thinking. If they could somehow defeat both Revan and Judicar, they would have removed both leaders of the Sith army. Of course doing it was much more difficult compared to thinking it, but Bastila was confident in the light side of the force.

As she tried to think up a plan, Jedi Master Yru Vreken charged as Revan, who made no move to dodge. Bastila help her breath, hoping that he would finish her, but her hopes were dashed when Judicar blocked the slash with his own saber and began fighting him. Eyes widening, she realized that Judicar had crossed the room in an impossible short amount of time. She wished she had studied the apprentice as much as she had the master, but the Intel they got about Revan's operation said that he wouldn't be there.

Jedi Knight Xendor Lyn ran forward to help, dueling with the Sith apprentice two on one. Turning, Bastila prepared to go against Revan, holding her lightsaber ready. She could almost see Revan's eyes rolling behind her mask at the thought of a Padawan trying to fight the Dark Lady of the Sith. She recited the Jedi code in her head to try and steady herself. She had to win this fight, or the Republic was doomed.

Revan stood there, watching Bastila, occasionally glancing behind her to watch her apprentice. He seemed to be holding himself well against the two Jedi. She was almost caught off guard by Bastila's attack. Almost of course meaning if Revan had been blind and deaf. She easily parried the blow and sent an easily dodge able strike her way. Bastila jumped back and spun to avoid a follow up move on revan's part. She turned just in time to watch Judicar summon the lightsaber of the Jedi Revan had struck down earlier to his left hand and stabbed Xendor through his midsection, then spun around and tried to finish the Jedi Master, but he ignited the other half of his double-sided lighstaber and parried the blow.

Judicar stepped away from the reach other the Jedi Master, who was about to go after him, when a blue light exploded at his feet and an odd pressure was applied to his legs. Looking down, he realized that an adhesive grenade had been tossed at him. That was the reason that the Sith had moved away, Yru realized trying to block the incoming attacks, which was difficult when he couldn't move his feet. Bastila tried to go over and help, but Revan cut her off, preventing her from assisting. She could only watch Judicar's lightsaber slice through the middle of Yru's saberstaff, taking one of his hands in the process. Yru screamed in pain as Judicar held his saber out, inches from his neck.

"This battle is over. Surrender."

"Never, I'll die before I join the Sith." Judicar stared at him, and for a moment, Bastila thought maybe he would spare him. That hope was dashed when the Jedi Master's head was separated from his shoulders with a casual flick of the wrist. Turning to face her, Bastila paled when she realized that she was trapped between a Sith lady and her apprentice, as well as numerous Sith troops. She reached out with the Force, desperately hoping to sense the presence of the other members of her strike team, but as Judicar had stated, they were no longer alive.

Staring at the white mask of the apprentice, she realized that he had taken out numerous Jedi and Republic troops out by himself, with no sign of injury. If he was the apprentice, how strong was the Master, she wondered? Deciding that death was preferable to capture, she launched herself at Revan, who effortlessly blocked her attack and kneed her in the stomach, driving the air out of her. Strong arms wrapped around her, forcing her into a kneeling position before Darth Revan, who picked up her lightsaber and hooked it onto her belt.

"You don't get to go out so easily my dear. You've made a horrible mistake. You've caught my eye. Take her to the special cells." She ordered. Bastila was dragged off by the soldiers, escorted by Darth Judicar and a strange red droid. The entire trip Bastila's mind raced as to what the "special cell" could be. No doubt some insidious Sith torture room, designed the break her spirit, she thought. Which was why she was so surprised when she was brought to a cell that was larger than the quarters she had on Dantooine as a child. The bed was large and comfortable looking, a simple desk and chair in one corner, she almost wondered if she was brought to a Sith lords, quarters. She was jarred from her thoughts at the sound of the durasteel door being slammed shut. Turning, she stared at Darth Judicar.

"These will sure as your quarters for the time being. Make yourself at home."

"Wait, why are you doing this?" Pausing, the Sith Apprentice turned, and for a split second she thought she could see his eyes behind his mask.

"Because you're interesting. And my mistress likes interesting things." Ignoring her other comments, Judicar walked out of the cell block. After a few moments, the reality of what was happening caught up with her. She had failed in her mission and the Republics best chance of victory, her battle meditation, was lost. She crawled onto bed and tried to recite the Jedi Code, however soon tears began to fall down her cheeks, until she passed out from exhaustion.

Bastila was relatively undisturbed, minus being served meals which turned out to be much better then she expected, for the next few days until Darth Revan herself made an appearance. The Sith watched her from the hallway for a few moments before leaning against the door.

"I won't insult you by asking you to join us….yet. In time I will ask and by that time you will no doubt accept. But right now I think that the best thing for you is to have some time to yourself and think about the actions that lead to your stay here. Of course you will not be alone. I will have my most trusted droid, HK-47 standing guard to ensure that none of my men get any funny ideas. And if you're lucky either I or my apprentice will come down to visit you, at which point we'll answer any question you have. And please, don't bother asking me to "let you go." Lets instead just skip that part to allow yourself to retain some dignity and I shall depart for now." Giving her a slight wave, one that seemed almost charming if not for who was giving it, Revan began to depart. Realizing that if Revan and Judicar remain resolute in their mission against the Jedi chances of a Republic victory was slim; she tossed the first thought that crossed her mind.

"Your apprentice is strong Revan. He won't be satisfied with his position in the Sith Empire for long. Soon he'll come after the title of Master!" Revan paused as the door opened, and for a moment Bastila thought she found an issue to work with. However it was not to be.

"Darth Judicar will not raise his weapons against me. The moment he and I met, the path his destiny would take him became sealed, for the rest of his life." And with that, Revan walked out, leaving only the red droid Bastila saw before. Sitting on the bed, Bastila began to wonder whether or not the Jedi Council would stage a rescue mission to get her back.

Please Read and Review. Some characters of the Kotor series will make appearances later on, I just haven't decided on whom yet. Some elements of the story have been inspired by storied I have read on this website. I'd list them but I honestly don't remember right off hand. If I do I'll credit them as an influence in chapter 2.


	2. Chapter 2

I would first like to thank Frost Metal 0-1, Ambria, borimir2810 for their reviews of the story. I hope that this chapter doesn't disappoint.

Darth Revan sighed happily as she walked out of her private relaxation room. One of the perks about being a Dark Lady of the Sith was the ability to have a few things no one else can have. When she designed her ship using the Star Forge systems, she made sure to include a Jacuzzi, something she could just relax in and let her troubles melt away. She wasn't dressed in her usual attire, nor was her apprentice, who was standing by the window, looking out into space. She was currently wearing a simple dark blue robe, a towel around her shoulders as she walked over to her apprentice and friend, who was wearing black pants and a simple back top. She knew him well enough to be able to tell what he was thinking just by subtle gestures and actions. However, this was not one of those times; he was of course thinking of the Jedi Padawan they had captured.

Walking over so she could stand next to him, she noticed that they had dropped out of hyperspace above Telos. Crossing her arms as the two stood, she turned slightly to him.

"Yes, because I want her to be so desperate for the presence of another that she'll be willing to have a conversation with the likes of us." She suddenly said. After a moment, Judicar turned and looked at her, his eyebrow raised in an expression of confusion that she never failed to find adorable.

"I beg your pardon?"

"That's my reply to what you said, "I get that part but why exactly are we waiting so long to go speak with her?"." Revan didn't even try to hide her smile at the even more confused look on his face.

"That does sound like something I'd say, but that also sounds like my reply to something else you said."

"It is. It started out with you asking about how I planned to bring Bastila over to our way of thinking. I replied that I intended to take it slow, little bits of information here, little bit of thinking there, so that her fall is a soft quiet one that no one will see coming."

"And that's why I asked about why we weren't talking to her for so long?" he surmised. Revan nodded with a smile.

"So instead of simply letting me ask my questions and letting the conversation take a linear course, you skipped ahead a few sentences and made us go through it over again because?"

"Because I love seeing that confused look on your face." She said, winking as she walked to her bed and lay down. Judicar smiled and turned back to the window. Revan sat up, watching him. In some ways, he was still the same kid she met on Dantoonie all those years ago. He never failed to be amazed at the galaxy and its mysteries. There were some times she almost felt bad for taking him on the path to the dark side: almost.

"Tell you what, in the morning, why don't you head on down and have a chat with our guest." Hearing her comment, he turned and walked over, sitting down at the chair next to the bed.

"Do you want me to give her bits of our sales pitch?" After a moment of thought she shakes her head.

"No, it's too early for that. Just have a nice pleasant chat, maybe bring a dejarik or chess board something to occupy her. I trust your judgment." She said. Judicar nodded, grabbing his mask and cloak, donning them before departing. Revan pouted. "You could wish me good night or something, be a gentlemen." Judicar responded by giving her the finger, which caused her to double over in laughter.

It had been nearly a week since Bastila's "conversation" with Darth Revan and in that week she slowly started to find herself going crazy from boredom. There was simply nothing to do, she even tried to talk to the droid that Revan had ordered to guard her, but found that the droid had a bloodthirsty personality, and to the point even solitude was preferable to talking to it. Finding herself with nothing to do, she began to pace around her cell, if nothing else for something resembling exercise. As she turned to begin pacing to the other side of the room, she was shocked to find Darth Judicar standing outside her cell. She hadn't heard him walk into the room. He was a tall man, at least 6'5 feet tall, his features were difficult to tell, due to his thick cloak and mask, but it was generally believed he was muscular and, according to some of the female Jedi who remembered him prior to his leaving the order for the wars, handsome.

But Bastila, as well as all other Jedi have always been told that use of the dark side corrupts you and makes you into a mockery of what you used to be. Often times Sith such as Exar Kun were used as examples of what the dark side could do to ones physical features. It made them old beyond their time, scarring them and making them appear almost deformed. There were no doubts in her mind that the reason he and his master wore masks was to hide their hideous appearance. She noticed that the Sith Lord had a holochess board with him, stepping into her cell; he used the force to bring the desk to the center of the room and set the board down on top of it.

"What kind of trick is this?" she asked, watching him turn on the holoboard.

"No trick, I just assumed you'd like some company. Black or white? I'll make you white, gives it a big symbolic gesture." He said, turning the board to face her. Reaching out, he summoned the chair in the room behind her, forcing her to sit down. Glaring at him, she slowly reached over and moved a piece.

"What's your game? What are you doing here?" She asked. He stared at the board for a moment before moving a piece of his own.

"Holochess obviously. I know you're a Jedi, but that doesn't mean you have to be an idiot. Not everything I do is an evil plot."

"You killed a lot of my friends when you captured me." She reminded him.

"We offered them a chance to surrender. A couple memory serves. Besides, not like it's a war or anything. That reminds me, a classic question Jedi are asked when they try to decide what they want to be. Your fighting a dark Jedi, he stops. What do you do?" He asked. Bastila stared at him for a moment before answering.

"Try to find out what turned him to the dark and turn him back."

"Yeah, that's what a lot of Jedi say. Let me tell you something. I have never seen a Jedi try to reason with a dark Jedi unless that Jedi was a desperate. But enough of politics and religion. Let us enjoy a nice game of holochess."

"The words Sith and nice don't exactly go together." She stated, glaring at him.

"Much like the words Jedi and bravery I assume?" he retorted. She looked shocked before her cheeks turned red in righteous indignation.

"The Jedi are the sworn defenders of the Republic."

"And that's why they refused to fight in the Mandalorian Wars, choosing instead to hide behind their chairs and reprimand those who had the courage to stand up for what they knew to be right. They only got involved in this war once the Republic Senate forced their hand by threatening to cut their funding. They preach pacifism to the point of self destruction. All the Master's care about is their control over the order and saving their own skins."

"That's not true; the Jedi Masters have been on the front of this since the start." Judicar looked up, and even through his mask she could feel his look of disbelief.

"That's easy enough to prove. Republic spending is a matter of public record. Check the funding the Jedi Order received in the weeks leading to their joining this war. You'll notice something all right. When was the last time a Jedi Master went out onto the field. Not Yrn back there who I know was only made Master recently, but a real one, like Vrook or Kavar? Hell, look at Vash and Zhar, when was the last time they even practiced with the padawans?" He asked. Bastila glared at him, wanting so much to defend the masters, but couldn't think of an answer to his questions. In fact she had heard rumors that the Republic was putting pressure on the council to intervene by threatening that if they didn't they would cut the funding of their facilities and give it to the military, but she had always dismissed these claims. The Jedi were the protectors of the Republic and would fight to defend it.

Wouldn't they?

"The Mandalorian Wars would have ended a lot sooner had the Jedi Masters acted, rather than sitting back and enjoying the feel of their moral superiority. If you don't believe that you have been drinking the juma juice for far too long." Bastila wasn't a psychology expert, but she could defiantly tell something about the War was weighing heavily on him.

"How many friends did you lose in the war?" She hoped that by talking to him, she would learn the events that caused him to turn to the dark side, and maybe turn him back. Judicar crossed his arms, the game forgotten.

"In my entire life I've had only 2 friends. One is Revan, the other was Malak. The three of us together did more to help the Republic then any of the members of the Jedi Council. When we were on Serrico, I got pinned pretty good by Mandalorians and my knee was wrecked. Malak fought through a group of Mandies and saved my butt." Judicar seemed to be getting pretty emotional. Obviously Malak had been a big part of his life. She wondered what happened to him, and asks him such.

"He died at the end. At Malachor V: the final battle of the Mandalorian Wars. I was supposed to have command of the ship that housed the superweapon: The Mass Shadow Generator. Our trump card against the Mandalorians, it didn't work right. It warped the already intense gravity of Malachor and totaled the planet. It's not suitable for life anymore. Not to mention it totaled both our fleets, hundreds of thousands dead." Judicar paused, trying to keep his emotions down. "All of those deaths all at once were too much for Malak. He just died. His heart stopped. There was so much chaos on his ship no one noticed until it was much too late to save him. I was supposed to have been the one to be on that ship. I was all but on the ship when Malak stopped me, and convinced me to lead the backup troops. He was the one who should have lived, become the Sith apprentice. He's known revan longer then I have. He should be here, helping her build the Empire." Sighing, he placed his face in his palm. Bastila could feel the regret and pain of loss coming off of Judicar. Bastila made a gamble, hoping it would pay off.

"How did you and Revan meet? Because when I asked her about it, she said that she owned you from the moment you two met."

Smiling under his mask, judicar thought back to that day, nearly 15 years ago.

_Well, a long time ago, I was sold as a slave to a man on Taris to pay off my families debts. One day, I saw the chance to flee and stowed away on a ship that ended up bringing supplies to the Enclave on Dantoonie. But my owners tracked me down and sent a team of mercs to get me back. Revan and Malak happened to be on their way back to the Enclave from visiting the Crystal Caves and saved me twice. Once from the goons, and once from the tracking collar they had used to find me. It had a device which would send an electric charge that would kill a wookie if I tried to take it off. Revan and Malak both grabbed the collar and tore it from my neck, knocking all 3 of us out. After we all regained conscious, I told them of what happened to lead my being on Dantoonie. They told me I had a large Force potential, that it was how they found me. A force presence that strong that they never met before struck them as curious. They got me into the Jedi Order and gave me a life. The three of us became best friends. We rarely went anywhere apart._

_ The one year anniversary of their meeting _

"I've been thinking a lot of what you said when we met, Jace. And I have a dream I want to make real. I want to make this universe safe for everyone, get rid of slavery and do away with the people who let things get that bad, no matter the cost: even if I have to fight the universe to do so. Are you two with me?" Revan asked her ocean blue eyes staring at her two best friends, full of determination. Malak spoke up, standing by her side.

"You shouldn't need to ask Rev. Whatever your call is, I've got your back." Jace Ogden, prior to his change into Judicar, nodded in agreement.

"I'm with you too, to your dreams and beyond." Revan smiled and wrapped her arms around both.

Back in the present, aboard the Vengeance

Bastila stared at Darth Judicar, as he told her of the events which lead to his meeting Revan. She had no idea his life had been like that. Master Vrook would often complain about how he was a mediocre Jedi who didn't have any ambitions beyond his own ego. But hearing his story, and feeling his truthfulness in the Force, cast him in a slightly different light to her.

"And what of Malak? I have often heard the Masters tell of how he was a brutal man and that the Mandalorian Wars turned him into the most evil monster." Bastila almost jumped back as she felt anger and hate roll off of him. She began to fear that she just said the wrong thing, when a female voice spoke up.

"Malak could have his moments, but at the end, he was truly the best of us." Darth Revan spoke as she walked into the cell, placing a hand on Judicar's back, which calmed him slightly. "My apprentice told you that Malak took his spot aboard the Reaper, the ship that activated the Mass Shadow Generator, but he didn't tell you why. You see, when Malak died, we were contacted by his parents, who wanted some of his personal effects in order to give him a burial, in keeping with the customs on Corellia. When we were sorting them out for the trip there, we discovered a holodisk he made for us. Just before the battle the Force gave him a vision of the future. If things went as they were planned, Judicar would have been cut off from the Force, and later he would have tried to kill me to become the Sith Master. He would have destroyed planets like Telos and Taris before I slew him. He went aboard the Reaper, knowing full well he was likely going to die, because he was our friend, and wanted to protect us."

Bastila had no idea what to say, and sat there thinking about what she was told as Darth Revan lead Judicar out of the cell block.

Ok, this is chapter 2. I originally wanted it to be longer, but I decided to save the big parts for the next chapter. I especially want Frost Metal to read chapter 3 when I get it up, because his review gave me an awesome idea that I hope will be a big hit. Next chapter will deal with more discussions between the Sith and bastila that will make her wonder about the masters, but it won't be a quick change over to the Dark side.


	3. Chapter 3

Darth Revan watched her apprentice, Darth Judicar as he slept. His mouth open slightly, the corners appearing moments away from breaking into that confident smirk she knew so well. Leaning over slowly, she grinned michivously. When their faces were only inches apart, she took a deep breath.

"HEY JUDICAR!" Jumping back, she watched as he woke up with a jolt and fell out of his bed. Walking over to the other side, she smiled innocently. "I'm sorry, were you sleeping?"

"No, whatever would make you think that?" He asked, his voice slightly muffled due to his face being in the floor. Rolling onto his back, he sits up and leans against the wall.

"Well, you better get dressed. We have a briefing scheduled later with the admirals. After that I'm headed to the Star Forge to pick up my new ship, so I'll be gone for at least two weeks." Judicar nods, standing up and heading to the refreasher while Revan sits on his bed. While he was in there, Revan summoned his twi'lik servent, Alema, and told her to get his robes ready. She returned a few moments later with not only his robes but also some food.

"While your gone I'll keep at Bastila, bit by bit. In addition to that we should be able to hit Naboo within a week and maybe have a nice shot at Taris." He said as he stepped out of the refresher. Walking back into the room Alema walked over and helped him put his robes on. Revan whistled appreciatly at the sight. He hadn't put on a shirt, showing his board muscular chest. Wearing his black robes and trousers, he ate the breakfast as he read over updates that happened in the Empire over the course of the night.

"Ok, that should be good but don't get to greedy. Don't attack Taris unless you have a good run at Naboo." She told him, taking a few pieces of bread for herself. She knew that her apprentice had plenty of military experience gained in the best way, on the front lines. He was a General in the previous war, and still retained his rank. Anything she could see in terms of military stratigies and strength, she knew he saw. That didn't mean she wasn't going to bust his chops.

Finishing his meal, he told Alema to bring Bastila her meal and talk with her a bit, thinking that she might like someone to talk to other then Sith Lords. Pulling his mask on, The Two Sith Lords walked to the conference room, where they joined a small meeting that was about to begin. Most of the people in the room where there via holonet, busy on their own ships: the only person besides them to be physically in the room was Judicar's personal assistant, Sergant Atton Rand, who instantly snapped to attention when the door opened.

The meeting was brief and uneventful. Most of the meeting was covering what the various admirals had planned for the next two weeks, with the only new details introduced concerning either troops, or events of the planets in their jurisdiction. Revan sat back after the meeting and dismissed Sergeant Rand, who left to begin checking to make sure the ship was running smoothly. After that it was just Master and Apprentice alone in the room

"Your assistant is quite competent. Where did you find him?" Revan asked as she sipped some water.

"He used to work under Major Hyris'an as an assasian, but I found he had impressive attention to detail, so I brought him aboard the Leviathon." He told her as he sat opposite side of her, turning slightly in his chair. After a few moments, a beep from Revan's comlink indicated that her shuttle for the Star Forge was ready. Standing up, she began to walk to the doors, before pausing.

'If you get the feeling she's ready for it, tell Bastila what's really going on." She told him. Judicar lifted his head in surprise.

"You think so? I thought you wanted to take it slow?"

"I still do. But theres a thing as too slow. I'm not telling you to go into her room and tell her everything. I'll trust your judgement in this. Do it how you want, but only tell her if you think she's ready. That little push off the metaphorical cliff to get her ready. It will be better for our forces if Bastila joins us of her own free will, swayed over by the belief what we are doing is truly for the better of the galaxy: rather than us torturing her until she joins, in which she could betray us at a moment's notice." She explained. Judicar sat silent, then nodded.

"That makes sense." He said as he stood up and followed her.

"And that's why I'm the Master. Even after all this time I still have something to teach you." She told him, smiling beneath her mask.

Bastila watched the twi'lik servent as they talked. She had been surprised when she told her that she was the personal servent of Darth Judicar. She was both surprised that the Twi'lik, who identified herself as Alema Torvak, was dressed in a way that wasn't inappropriate. Most twi'lik servent girls were dressed in skimpy barely there outfits: Alema wore a simple black and tan ensamble that covered covered everything up, but still managed to show off her figure.

She was also surprised about how she talked about Judicar and Revan. They never tried anything inappropriate with her: She entered into Judicar's service after they broke up a slave trafficking ring. She asked to become his slave as an attempt to repay him for his help. He accepted her request, but only if she became his servent and not his slave. She got a salary for her work and was even given some proper clothing and quarters.

"But you can't agree with their attacks against the Republic?" Bastila argued, hoping to sway the girl into her way of thinking.

"Why can't I? The Republic did nothing to stop people like me from being sold into slavery. Hell, I know at least 3 members of its Senate that bought a few of them. What they want to do is get rid of the corrupt and out of date system in place and install something new and better. There was a Bith scientist, I forgot his name, but he did a research paper on creative destruction, the belief that in order to create one must sometimes destroy. He even talked about how Ithorians will sometimes set fire to parts of their wildlife to cause seeds to spread around and flourish even more. Something like that anyway."

Both of them jumped at the sound of the cell opening. Looking over, they saw Darth Judicar in the doorway.

"Discussing politics are you?" He asked, his amusement apparent in the Force. Blushing slightly, Alema grabbed the nearly empty food tray and excused herself, but not before Judicar grabbed a piece of bread from the tray.

"I hope you liked the food, Alema takes great pride in her talent in cooking."

"Pride can be a dangerous thing." She told him, sitting up straight.

"Depends, are we talking pride or arrogance?" He asked, leaning against the wall.

"Your arrogant and dangerous." She replied.

"No, I'm cocky. Arrogence is when you don't have enough credits to cash your bets." He retorted, watching bastila blink a few times, picking up on slight bits of confusion in the Force from her. "That metaphor just buzzed right over your head didn't it?" Shaking his head in amusement, he got to a new topic of conversation.

"So, what shall we talk about now?" he asked her.

"Why are you and Revan doing this? Despite what the Jedi Council and other people may think, you two don't seem the type to wage a war against a goverment you sacrificed so much to save." Bastila asked, wanting to get straight to the bottom of the issue, and she had a feeling that he would be the type of person to respond well to the direct approach. He shifted slightly, giving her the impression he was gaging her and wondering what to tell her.

"I'll tell you: but you need to be absolutely sure, you will never be able to forget what I tell you, and it will change everything you've ever thought." He told her. She shivered when she felt tone. He truly believed that he felt what he was going to tell her was something of such a big level, it was a very big thing.

"Tell me." Staring at her, he slowly nodded.

"After Malachor V, we went into the unknown reigns: the Jedi Council claimed they didn't want to get involved in the war because they felt the threat hadn't shown itself. Near the end of the war, we started seeing signs something may have been behind the Mandalorians attack. The only place we hadn't looked was the uncharted reaches of space. And we found it. Boy did we find it.

We found the Sith. The real deal Sith Empire: the rememts of the Sith forces from the Hyperspace War. Led by a monster, a being kept alive all this time purely by the power of the Force. Revan and I, we're two of, if not _the_ most powerful Force users you'll ever meet. We had him cornered in his throne room. Two on one. Our guys had an exit secured: all we had to do was lop off his head and the threat was done.

We were completely, utterly, and laughably outclassed by him." Bastila's blood ran cold at his comment. She could feel his truthfulness in the Force, his guilt, his regret, his helplessness. As he told the story, she could almost see it replaying in front of her.

Drawing their lightsabers, the two jedi took positions in front of the Sith Emporer, ready to fight to protect their home from his monster. No words were needed, no hammy speeches about power, this was a time for action. Wordlessly, The Emperor drew his lightsaber, still sitting in his throne. The two ran at him, Revan moved first, trying to draw his attention so Jace could make a move. The Emperor blocked the strike, then held out his hand and blocked Jace's strike using the Force and threw him back, then tossed Revan back. Both rolled to their feet and launched another attack, drawing on the Force to boalster their attacks and make it tougher for the Emperor to attack them using the Force.

Using the Force, he tried to uproot the ground beneath their feet, but they leap in the air and brought the sabers down, this attempt was thwarted when the Emperor uprooted the floor directly in front of him and tossed it at them, crashing into them and sending them back. Grunting in pain, the two Jedi tried to think of a new plan. Jace grabbed the double sided lightsaber he took from a Dark Jedi, ignited it and held it in his left hand, while holding his regular green saber in his right hand. Charging at the Emperor, he tried to use a different style to keep him off balance, but the Emperor adapted his tactics instantly and sliced right through the double bladed saber, taking part of Jace's hand with it.

Just then, Revan got a message from Admiral Karath

"General Revan, we're encountering increasing amounts of hostiles. We will not be able to hold this position much longer, you and General Ogden must return immediately." Cursing, she tossed her entire grenade belt at the Emperor, grabbed Jace and ran from the Sith…Monster as fast as they could. They were able to reach the others and escape from the Sith Forces, but they knew this would not be the last time they met.

Aboard the Leviathon

Revan walks into the medicenter, making a bee-line to her best friend, who had been getting his hand examined and would be getting a prothsetic refit as soon as the damage was assessed. Revan sighed in relief when she saw the damage wasn't as bad as she thought. Instead of losing his entire hand, he had lost only part of his hand including his pinky, middle and ring finger. It would take less time to adjust to three prosthtic fingers, rather than an entire hand.

"Revan, what are we going to do?" He asked, once they had privacy. "You saw that guy, he had us cold, we did nothing to him. We couldn't even get him out of his damn chair. The Republic is going to be crushed when he finally decides to make his move."

"I know Jace. I've been thinking about that. I have a plan, but you won't like it. It requires we betray everything we've ever fought for. The Republic won't want to prepare for this, they want to preserve the peace we got them. The Jedi won't help, they won't listen to us after we defied their orders and went to war. If we want to fix this, we'll have to do it ourselves. Make the Republic ready for the war. Bring the jedi into the fold." Revan told him, a plan unfolding in front of her eyes. Jace looked up, having an idea of whats she's proposing, but wanting her to say it.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, we're gonna play this game by his rules. He made me into a Sith Lord, hoping I would help him. Well, instead I'll use that to my advantage. These guys with me, they've seen what's at stake. They'll undersand what needs to be done. We'll form our own Sith Empire, conquer the Republic, do it quickly, so that we save as much as we need and prepare it for what's coming."

"Revan, we have maybe 10 ships, we can't conquer the Republic with that, no matter how weakened they are and how skilled we are. It's too big a disadvantage for us. We'll need something huge to give us the edge." Revan nodded in agreement, thinking deeply, trying to come up with the advantage, when Jace spoke up again. "Wait, remember what the Emperor said? "Find the Star Forge, and eliminating the Republic will be no more difficult then killing a gizka." If we can find this Star Forge before he does, we can use it to our advantage, give us the edge we need."

Revan looked at her friend, and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"I have no right to ask you to help me with this Jace. I'll have you dropped off somewhere and you can go underground, before things get bad" As she began to leave, he grabbed her hand and pulled her back.

"No, I'm not letting you do this alone. Remember, I'm with you until the very end. Whatever we face, I'll always have your back. And I'll never regret serving you." He told her, almost brining tears to her eyes, hearing the conviction in his tone. Smiling she placed her hand on his cheek.

"Very well then, I name you the second in command of our Sith Empire, you are now my apprentice, Darth Judicar, "The Judge of the Sith." She spoke. It wasn't as formal as it perhaps should have been, but that was just fine for them.

"I will not let you down….Darth Revan."

Present Day

Bastila was silent as the Sith apprentice finished his tale of how things came to be. She could feel every bit of truth in his words, he hadn't lied about anything. It scared her, down to her bones, to think of a being could defeat Revan and Judicar so easily. As he spoke, she remembered how a Jedi had mentioned some of the military production facilities were often spared, how the Republic infustrucre was never truly targeted. They had chalked that up to Sith arrogance, but hearing this tale, caused her to realize, they were trying to keep the Republic together, by uniting it under a single banner for a single purpose.

Every day she could feel her resolve crumbling. She was worried, that if she wasn't rescued soon, she may end up joining with the Sith.

A buzzing from judicar's comlink caught their attention. He didn't answer it, just merely pressed a button on it and stood up.

"Our assault on the planet Naboo will begin soon. I'm going to have to head to the bridge for the battle." He told her, taping some buttons on his comlink.

"Wait a moment, let me watch this battle. I want to see Sith leadership in action." Bastila told him as he turned to the door. Standing silent, he nodded and raised his comlink.

"Luitenant Sampslien, I want you to link the Holoscreen in prisoner quarter 1 to the holocam on the bridge. "

The holoscreen turned on, showing the command bridge bustling with activity. Walking out, he immediately made his way to the bridge. Within a few minutes, bastila could see him on the screen.

"Ok people, we have a special guest critic watching this preformace, so no singing offkey of I'll brain the lot of you." Darth Judicar said as he walked onto the bridge. The crew chuckled, enjoying their commanders good humor. But even on the holoscreen Bastila could tell that the moment he stood at the command station, the entire attidude of the ship change. Reaching out with the Force, she could feel the general attitude of the crew. She could feel pride, a sense of duty, of purpose: clearly despite his devotion to the dark side, he was a supurb leader who they felt cared for them.

"General, Alpha team is ready to commence the operation on your orders." One of the men stated, standing behind him.

"They have it. Patch me through to the Naboo Queen at once, then scramble Beta team on my mark." The bridge was bustling with activity, but amazingly, none of it was wasted. Everything the crew was doing had a purpose and a goal.

"General, the Naboo military had detected our presence." One of the officers shouted from his station.

"I'm not surprised, given we're trying to talk to them. Where's my channel?" Darth Judicar said. Within a few moments, the face of the Naboo Queen, Talia appeared on the screen. The Sith apprentice turned to the Queen's image and began talking.

"This is the second fleet of the Sith Empire and my name is Darth Judicar. My teams are in position to launch an attack against your planet, and any attempts to retaliate will only result in the unnessecary loss of life. We offer you the chance to surrender and preserve the lives of your subjects. You have 1 minute to decide."

Bastila didn't need to use the Force to sense her emotions, could clearly see all of the warring emotions on the young queens face. She clearly wasn't sure of what to do and wanted to take the course of action that would be best for Naboo. She had been surprised at his speech, as well as the tactics he choose. Judging by the orders given prior to Judicar's arrival on the bridge, it seemed like the plan had been to send out a team, get it into position and request the surrender of the planet. With the Sith fighters in the air, the military wouldn't be able to launch a counter attack without suffering significant losses. It was a style of combat she had never expected from the Sith. And she got the feeling that it wasn't an act for her, since her request to view the battle was so sudden, she doubted that he could have came up and executed a plan like that so quickly.

She began to wonder if things were as black and white as the Jedi council found it.

A few days later, Judicar was back down in her cell, talking to her about the war right and wrong. Bastila wasn't sure if he was being truthful about this Sith Empire of his, but she was going to defend the Jedi Order's actions as much as she could.

"How can you say that your forces are in the right? Have you forgotten the battle of Vertros Beta, where a Sith Battle Team slaughtered a village full of the native people of that planet?" Bastila asked.

"Those soliders were captured,

As they began to talk about bastila, a soilder walked in and stood at attention. Judicar didn't even look behind him.

"I thought my instructions were to not be disturbed Sergeant Rand." The Sith soldier was silent for a moment but then replied.

"With respect sir, you requested not to be disturbed unless it was something important." Darth Judicar straightened and looked behind him, then stood up.

"Are you correcting me, Sergeant?" The solider, Rand, wavered for only a second.

"Yes, I guess I am sir." The Sith apprentice looked at him for a moment, then shrugged.

"Ok, just checking. So, what's this important matter you saw fit to bring me?"

"General, we have been contacted by the government of Taris, they wish to discuss a treaty to allow them to join the Empire, they however have some conditions they wish to discuss before they formally begin negations." Sergeant Rand informed him, knowing that his commanding officer would ask about the conditions, he continues. "They want our assistance in dealing with the lower city swoop gangs, our assistance is developing a cure for the rakghoul disease that plagues the under city, and a gurentee of protection against any Republic retaliation." Judicar thought about this for a few moments.

"Very well, Sergeant, alert Lord Revan, then set course to Taris. Lets figure out if their being sincere or this is an elaborate trap. Contact Admiral McGrisa, tell him to have the third fleet on standby just in case things go bad.

In the meantime, I want you to get two platoons ready to go onto to go planet side within an half an hour of our arrival: I want a preliminary report on the under city gangs on my desk exactly 25 hours after you reach the planet. I want a medical squad briefed on the disease you mentioned and working on a cure, assuming the Tarisian government is telling the truth, they'll let us access their records on the disease, have the medics start there. I also want a diplomat team assembled to meet with the council leaders and discuss any other details they want to have out before they join. I'm putting a lot on your plate, but I'm certain you can handle it, am I right lieutenit?" The solider snapped to attention and walked out. Judicar held up a hand with three fingers, brought one down, then the second: as the last finger went down, both of them could sense confusion and pride on the other side of the door as the Sith solider realized he had just been promoted.

"Nice kid, incrediable attention to details, and he has the stones to talk back when I'm wrong. He'll go far." Judicar explained, answering her unsaid question as to his leap from Sergeant, past warrant officer straight to lieutenant.

The entire way to Taris, Bastila pondered about the situation. It didn't seem possible that Taris, a planet that had always been a solid supporter of the Republic would be willing to negotiate with the Sith Empire. She hadn't felt any deception from the Sith solider, Rand, who delievered the news, but that didn't mean much. He could have been told by another officer what to say and believe it to be true. Hwever, in the back of her mind, she reminded herself that for news that important, someone important would have been the one to tell Darth Judicar, and from what he had told her about Rand, he was one of his most trusted soliders.

If this was real, and she slowly began to come to the concluision that it was, it only reinforced the thought that he was telling the truth. And if he was telling her the truth about Taris, could he also be telling her the truth about the Sith Emperor? Given she could feel his truthfulness in the Force, it was a good sign that he was. She now knew why they wanted her to join them, it was as she thought, her battle meditation. But it wasn't for battling the Republic, but the True Sith Empire. Her ability could make all the difference.

A few days later they arrived at Taris, and Bastila was doubting wether or not she could keep her resolve much longer. When she had confronted Judicar with her thouhts concerning the fact he was currently engaged in war against something he claimed to want to save, he brought up the apparent writings of a Ithorian scientist named Lexuair Chorbuaot, who published a paper on a very rare and exotic plant called the pheozera, which apparently could only produce its seeds when subjected to high tempetures, so when Ithorins would do, was to set fire to the plants. What this accomplished was not only the releasing of the seeds, but also spreading them due to the thermal currents created by fire: Nessecery Creative Destruction, Judicar had refered to it. According to its very name, in order to create, one must first destroy. That was part of the basis concerning the war against the Republic, he claimed.

The other part was that both he and Darth Revan knew that the Jedi Council would never have listened to what they had to say, had they attempted to get reenforcements from the Council.  
"They want to pretend that even in the very darkest corner of the galaxy, there is no danger. We learned from numberous Jedi that the Council refused even to hear the transmissions we sent upon finding proof of the True Sith Empire. This wasn't an act we undertook lightly, this was quite literally, the only way."

He told her as they walked in the lower city, investigating the disapperence of a small Sith squad. He had decided to bring Bastila with him, feeling that she would enjoy being somewhere else other then her cell. Of course she was still a prisoner, her hands had been cuffed, but at least he hadn't shackled her legs. She knew that idea had been pitched, but Judicar decided against it.

As they approached the last reported coordinates of the team, Judicar took out his lightsaber, looking around. Bastila considered trying to run, but knew that even without leg shackles and Judicar distracted, she would be unable to get far. Judicar took a few steps in front of her, expanding his Force senses to search for hostiles.

Suddenly, rockets flew at him from all sides, slamming into him and wounding him. Bastila looked around, spotting assult droids repelling down the from the next level up. Since droids can't be felt in the Force, he didn't sense their presence. Before he could begin to counter attack, a squad of Jedi repelled down along with the droids and attacked Judicar, who tried to defend himself. Bastila immediately noticed he wasn't using his left arm, rather keeping it close to his torse. As he spun to deflect a blaster bolt with his saber, Bastila caught a glimps of his arm and saw that it was covered in blood. Her eyes widened as she realized that the Jedi's plan of attack was so simple, he hadn't expected it. She was shook out of her thoughts when a pair of hands grabbed her from behind.

"Padawan Bastila, My name is Jedi Genith Jarkx, I'm here on behafe of the Jedi Council to rescues you and end the menace of one of the Sith Lords." The dark skinned Jedi told her as he freed her from her cuffs, before turning his attention to the battle. Bastila wasn't sure, but watching him try to defend himself with his bad arm was depressing. Eventually, the Jedi backed off while the assault droids took up positions again, firing their rockets up at the ceiling, causing rubble to fall on top of him rendering him uncouncious. Jarkx walked over, drawing his lightsaber.

"And now, the threat of the Sith Lords will be reduced by one." He said, raising his lightsaber to strike Judicar down once and for all. Bastila's eyes widened as she reached out to stop the attack.

"No, he's unable to defend himself. We will arrest him and bring him before the Jedi council for them to judge him. Jedi do not kill helpless opponents. We are better than Sith." She told him, the Jedi glared at her for a few moments before turning and using the Force to remove the rubble from on top of Judicar, one of the taller members of the strike team picking him up onto his shoulder, before they all hopped onto a shuttle that flew next to them. From there, they quickly rendezvoused with a Republic stealth ship, which immediately took off for Dantooine.

Bastila sighed as she turned to look at Judicar who was chained up in a cell, which was nowhere near as pleasant as hers was. His robes and mask had been stripped from him upon begin brought on board, with a pair of Jedi and Assault Droids standing guard, ready to attack at the first sign of trouble. Bastila couldn't shake the feeling she was making a big mistake.

Sorry I took so long with this, I got writers block half way through and got distracted with some of my other stories. I hope you like it. Please review.


	4. New Players

Bastila sat in the quarters she had been given on her stay aboard the Harbinger. She still couldn't completely believe that she had been rescued from the Sith. Getting off of her bed, she walked around, she was forced to admit even though she was a reluctant guest, her quarters on the Leviathan were much more spacious and comfortable. Cell: she had to remind herself, she had been staying in a cell. The quarters she had here weren't very big, or had near the amenities as the cell of Leviathan, but she would have to get used to it again.

As she lay back down on the bed, her mind went back to Darth Judicar, who is still chained up in the cell he had been thrown in, guarded by Jedi and droids. She knew the rationale behind it, he was a dangerous individual and second in command of the Sith Empire that had been sweeping through the galaxy. But that didn't mean he had to be treated like an animal, he was still hurt from the attack that captured him and rescued her. He had shown compassion and kindness even to those on the other side of the war. She thought about how both he and his master had offered the strike team she had been a part of chances to surrender, how he had acted when launching the attack on Naboo and had sought to end the battle quickly with as little death as possible. Sighing, she got up and changed into her robes before making her way to the medical labs for her mandatory checkup.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()(REVEN)()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()(

Darth Revan walked along the catwalk of the Star Forge, inspecting the ships and supplies being made by the monstrous Dark Side Artifact. She would never fail to be amazed at the marvel of the ancient Rakata superweapon. Due to its immense infusion of Dark Side energies both she and Judicar would often do their best to stay away from it as much as they could, in order to avoid being taken over by its power. However, her new flagship was taking longer than she had expected to complete. She should have anticipated the longer wait time, due to the size and design of the ship. At least it gave her more time to think of a name, she hadn't been able to settle on what to call her ship. A ship of this much importance needed a name worthy of its power.

She was drawn out of her thoughts when her comlink began to buzz. Knowing she wouldn't be able to hear the message due to the noise of the production line, she walked off the line and onto an auxiliary walkway.

"This is Darth Revan. What's going on?" She asked after answering her comlink.

"Lord Revan, I have just heard from Colonel Venjix aboard the Leviathan. Apparently Lord Judicar was victim of an ambush while on Taris. He was wounded and captured by a team of Jedi and assault droids. Jedi Bastila was also taken aboard the Republic ship." Admiral Karath reported. Revan leaned against a wall; processing the information she had just been given.

"So Judicar's message about the Tarisian government wanting to join the Empire was a fake?" Revan asked.

"It's hard to determine. According to the reports we've been receiving from the Leviathan's diplomatic teams, they believe that the Tarisian desire to join the Empire was sincere and that they didn't know about the Republic Strike Team. And as you know, two of the members of the diplomatic team are Force Sensitive and can tell if they are lied to." Admiral Karath told her. Revan paced up and down the walkway for a few moments before replying.

"Have Colonel Venjix send me all of Judicar's log entries made since Levitation left for Naboo. And see if you can determine where Judicar is being held."

"Yes Lord Revan. I'll contact Col. Venjix immediately and have Lord Judicar's logs sent to you." After ending the comlink call, Revan immediately went to the ship she was using on her stay aboard the Star Forge. About an hour later, her console began to beep, indicating that the logs she had demanded had arrived. Sitting at the desk, she began to look through them, before turning one on. Leaning back, she began to listen to the personal log made just before the Levitations arrival at Naboo.

"Darth Judicar's personal entry log: We have nearly arrived at Naboo and preparations for our invasion are complete. If the plan works, not only will we take the planet without a major loss to our troops, but Bastila won't know what to think of us and will be further influenced into joining us.

Crew morale is lower than usual, but that is because they have not had any R&R in almost three months..." Closing her eyes, she began to randomly skim through the entries until she came to a section that interested her.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()( )()()()()()()BASTILA()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

After having been medically cleared by the ships medic, Bastila decided that she should see how Judicar was doing. Even though he had been trying to recruit her to the Dark Side, he had still come to see her many times. Least she could do was see him once. As she approached, she paused feeling strangely lightheaded, leaning against a wall to reoriented herself. Suddenly she realized that she that they had set several neural dampening fields around Judicar's cell, so many that their effects were spilling out into the hallway. Frowning, she continued her walk over. She knew one wouldn't work against Judicar, he was far too powerful. But the amount he was being exposed to felt like overkill. As she stepped in front of his cell, her eyes immediately saw a red stain completely covering his left side.

"Has the prisoner received medical treatment since his arrival?" She asked one of the droids.

"Answer: Negative. It was the order of Commander Onasi that the prisoner not be treated until our arrival at Dantoonie, in order to decrease his chances of being able to escape. His belief was that if the prisoner was still injured, it would be less likely that he would be able to summon enough energy to escape." The droid replied.

"Darth Judicar is surrounded by so many neural dampeners that I doubt he could focus enough to spell his own name. That wound needs to be looked at before the bleeding becomes too severe. I want the medic down here to look at him." Bastila told the droid. It was silent for a moment before replying.

"Acknowledged. Medical personal are on their way." The droid stated. Bastila signaled the security officer to drop shields and turn off the disrupters before she stepped inside. Darth Judicar, a man who presented himself as proud, distinguished and immaculate: now, slumped over face down on the grown in a restraint jacket, the only thing keeping his face out of sight being his hair, she almost couldn't believe this was the same man.

After a moment, he lifted his head and looked at her. She suddenly realized that this was the first time that she had seen him without his mask. His skin was slightly pale, and a scar decorated his left cheek but, and she admitted this with some reluctance, she now knew what various Jedi meant when they called him handsome. The thing that surprised her the most was his eyes. Instead of being Sith yellow, they were a deep green.

"I'm surprised to see you. I didn't think you'd be allowed to come see me, what with me holding you captive and being evil and whatnot. By the way, thanks for turning off those neural disrupters. Now I can properly kick myself. I must say, the accommodations aren't much. I must say I miss my room; the cook isn't as good as Alema. Then again I haven't been fed, so how can I know."

Bastila was surprised by his upbeat attitude. Here he was, stripped of his dignity, surrounded by armed guards who would love any excuse to kill him. When she had been captured just over a week ago, she had expected to be subjected to similar conditions Darth Judicar currently endured. Whereas he was treated horribly in a fashion aboard a Republic ship, she had been treated incredibly well on a Sith Ship.

As she tried to think of ways to make him more comfortable, she felt the presence of the chips commander, Carth Onasi as he approached along with one of the ships medical droids. She could clearly feel that he didn't want Judicar's wounds looked at but one of the agreements made between the Republic and the Sith during talks on Devaron were that prisoners were entitled to medical aid, so if he denied Judicar any longer, he would be breaking an agreed upon rule of the war. As the medical droid began to examine and tend to Judicar's arm, Onasi looked at Bastila.

"I'm only allowing the minimal treatment needed to keep him alive. He's a very dangerous prisoner, and I don't want to fix him up too much right now. Once we're on Dantoonie the Jedi healers can take it from there." Bastila bit her lip to prevent a response. Technically keeping Judicar alive was in keeping satisfied the Rules of War, and she understood Commander Onasi's reasons, but that didn't mean she had to like it. "Jedi Bastila, if you're up to it, we'd like you to come to the briefing room and tell us about your time aboard the Sith ship."

"Yeah, I'm more then able to answer any questions you have, but I don't think I'll be able to answer very much. I was kept in a cell for all of the time, except when I was on Taris." As she began to walk away, Judicar called out to her.

"Hey Bastila, I seem to be low on credits. Got any to spare?"

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()(JUDICAR)()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()())()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()(

After Bastila, Onasi and the medical droid left, the guard forgot to turn the neural disrupters on. Closing his eyes, Judicar enters a healing trance, speeding up his body's natural healing process. As he did so, he begins to use his right boot to begin tapping in a rhythmic pattern. He could feel something, something he felt once before, something in the very corner of his mind.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()(()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()REVAN)()()()()()(()()(()()())()()()()()(()(()()((())(

After Revan went through all of her apprentice's logs, she orders the Fourth Fleet to move from its position above Vulpter and take up a new position near Mimban and moved the sixth fleet to Telos. As she began to make preparations for a renewed assault on the Republic, red alerts began to go off all over the ship.

"Lord Revan, we have detected a ship approaching from deeper within the unknown regions. According to the data we are receiving from the Star Forge's sensors, we believe it is a ship from the True Sith Empire." Revan's blood ran cold when she heard that piece of information from Admiral Karath. She hadn't expected any sign from them for a long time yet. Then something Karath said caught up to her.

"Wait, you said "A" ship?" She said as she ran to the bridge.

"Yes, we detect only one ship, a large Dreadnought. Wait, they are sending us a hail. Lord Revan, it seems they are surrendering to us and wish to talk. They are willing to send only one person over to negotiate assistance." Revan slid to a stop, thinking, reaching out with the Force, she didn't feel any hostility coming from the approaching ship. Turning, she ran to the hanger.

"Very well: contact our people on Rakata Prime and have them turn off the disrupter field, then direct the Sith representative to my private hanger, and have a squad of Dark Jedi ready just to be safe. If their engines so much as fluctuate strangely, have all ships one fire and turn the disrupter field back on."

Darth Revan arrived at the hanger shortly before the shuttle from the True Sith Dreadnought did. This allowed her to use a mild meditative trance to calm herself. As the boarding ramp for the shuttle came down, she sighted its pilot. It took her a moment to place a name to the face, a face that put her on edge, though she didn't show it in neither her face nor the Force.

"Magnus, I must say I didn't expect to see you. Did the Emperor send you after me?" The Sith in front of her was roughly Judicar's height, with a slightly more slender build and brown hair with a more handsome face. The eyes however showed a ruthless determination that no amount of facial beauty could offset. Last time she saw him that look wasn't in his eyes, Darth Revan wondered what had happened to change that.

"No, neither I nor my crew are with the Emperor anymore. It's a long story that I will love to tell, however, right now I need your help." Revan didn't detect any dishonesty in his voice. If Magnus was no longer allied with the Sith Emperor, then she could gain a huge advantage in his help.

"Very well, let us sit and talk like civilized people, tell me just what you need help with."

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()(BASTILA)()()()()()()()()())()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

As they arrived on Dantoonie, Bastila felt increasingly uneasy about what would happen to Darth Judicar. She knew that Jedi didn't kill their prisoners, but that didn't mean that he was safe. The closer their shuttles got to the ground, the more she thought of his claims of the True Sith Empire. She was on a separate shuttle from the Sith apprentice, and had forced herself not to look to her left where Judicar's shuttle was already landing. Turning, she walked over to the boarding ramp, Jarkx next to her ready to disembark and rejoin the Jedi Order.

While on their way to Dantoonie, Bastila had used the ships computers to check Judicar's claims, and found they were all true. The Jedi Order received funding from the Republic, in order to build the Jedi Temples, upkeep for the facilities, feed and care for the Palawan's: without that funding it would be difficult for the Order to proceed as it was used to. The Republic Governments Public Funding page showed a steep decrease in funding three months into the Jedi Civil War, which lasted only 2 days, ending the day after the Jedi Order had officially announced they were going to support the Republic against Darths Revan and Judicar.

She had also found scientific articles that backed Judicar's claims of "creative destruction". Everything he had told her, that she was able to check and confirm for herself, was 100% accurate. This caused an intense conflict within herself. She knew that if she tried to back Judicar to the Council they would become suspicious, perhaps even believe she had fallen to the Dark Side. But to be honest with herself, she had come to feel that the only reason Revan and Judicar were Sith and involved with The Dark Side was because they had taken it upon themselves to be a necessary evil in order to protect the galaxy.

As Bastila began to walk down the ramp, she could see Judicar being led down his ramp, not surprisingly surrounded by armed guards. Head bowed, shoulders hunched, his posture indicated he felt defeated. She couldn't help feeling bad for him.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()())()()()()()())()()()()()()()()(REVAN)()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()(

As Darth Revan watched the Dreadnought punch its way into Hyperspace from the comfort of her quarters, she smirked, feeling that things were about to become very interesting. And more importantly, she would soon have more key players on her side of the game table.

"_Just remember Magnus,"_ Revan had said to her new ally, _"You get my friend back, and I'll help you gets yours back."_

She stood silent for nearly an hour before she held up her comlink.

"Admiral Karath, order Colonel Venjix to move Second Fleet. Find a Republic Fleet and Attack it, then retreat to Korriban." She said, her tone indicating that it wouldn't be wise to have her orders questioned, which her longtime comrade didn't.

"_**Hold On Jace. Help is on the way. We're getting you out of there."**_ She thought to her best friend. She would get him back if she had to level most of the planet to do so.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()(JUDICAR)()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()())()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()(

As Judicar walked through the courtyard to the Council Chambers, he suddenly felt his Master's thoughts. Grinning, he knew he'd be able to hold out until back up arrived, but could the Jedi?

Straightening, he suddenly stopped moving, bolting himself in place with the very fabric of The Force. Not even a Republic Capitol Ship could move him unless he wanted to. Yellow eyes shining, his white teeth gleaning, he looked around and took a deep breath. All eyes were on him, so he had to make sure the upcoming show was perfect.

"Tell the Jedi Council that it's to wonderful a day to spend it in some boring room. Tell them, that for once they can do things in the light for all to see. I've got all the time in the world" Darth Judicar said, looking right at one of the guards, who almost wet himself. In an instant, he went from being a defeated and dejected prisoner, to a man who has all the confidence in the galaxy.

And so ends the latest chapter. Please review. The more often people review, the quicker I want to update stories. Credit goes to HubrisP for giving me characters and plot ideas to use. Magnus is one such example. I purposely kept his role down this chapter to try and build suspense. The next chapter will explain any questions people might have about him. What will come next chapter you ask? Well…..

Who is the mysterious Magnus?

Who is the friend he needs help rescuing?

What is Revan planning?

Will Bastila join The Dark Side?

Will I ever update Expanding The Turf or Moving on?

All these and more in the next Chapter: Sith Happens!


	5. Sith Happens

Bastila watched from a distance as a number of Jedi attempted to move Darth Judicar, who hadn't so much as budged an inch since demanding the Jedi Council come see him two days ago. In that time, he had begun to gradually expand his Force Presence to the point it was impossible to ignore. Many Jedi were beginning to wonder why the Council was still in their chambers and not confronting Judicar in the open. Sure some argued it would be seen as them giving into his demands, but if the apprentice to the Dark Side was willing to hash it out in the open, why not the leaders of the Light Side the people on the other side of the debate asked. Bastila couldn't help but wonder what Judicar's play was: he had to have known the Jedi Council wouldn't meet with him in public, they didn't like being blindsided and would spend days looking at this from every which way to see what he was up. She had been doing the same thing since his declaration, but for the life of her she couldn't see what good it would do. She felt that there was something she was missing.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++JUDICAR++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

_Just a bit longer and things will be right where they need to be_. Judicar thought as several members of the Republic Forces tried their best to make him move; at this point even a centimeter would be considered victory. Keeping a smile off his face, he could feel in the Force a presence saturated with the Dark Side quickly approaching. Quickly going over some quick calculations in his head, estimating how much longer it would take for the mysterious back up to arrive, he wondered what he could do to stall a bit longer: after all this game of standing around wouldn't work much longer. Noting in the corner of his eye that a fairly large human male backing up, apparently going low tech in trying to budge him. Just before they collided, he began walking forward.

_Too bad Revan isn't here. She loves it when I put on a show_.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++BASTILA+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Everyone in the square began murmuring in wonder as Judicar began to walk in the direction of the Jedi Council Chamber, the large human falling flat on his face.

"Well since the Council is too scared to come out of their cave I guess I'll go see those vampires myself." He said aloud, before pausing and turning to go in another direction. "First I should find a refresher; I've been holding it for two days. And maybe someone could get me a pastry."

Bastila was surprised by his attitude. He was surrounded by Jedi and Republic Military, who had such numbers that even he couldn't hope to fight them off. And here he was acting like he wasn't in any way worried. She couldn't claim to be an expert in what he was thinking, but she knew that the only time she had ever seen him act so confident was when he lead an attack on Naboo, when he had a plan the ensured his victory.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++REVAN+++

Darth Revan took the latest datapad and scanned through it. The deal between her and Magnus was if Magnus's rescued Judicar from the Republic forces, she would locate his lover and help in the rescue attempt. So far she hadn't had much luck, but the search was still young and she had a highly sophisticated spy network weaved into the Republic, however since at least half of those spies report directly to her apprentice it was taking longer than usual to get any word from them. She hoped to have at least the name of the planet Bell was being held on. By having Magnus lead the attack and rescue attempt on Dantoonie, she hoped to surprise Republic, who no doubt were expecting her to be the one on the way. Glancing at the holoscreens she saw that they were nearly arriving at the location of a secret Republic Fleet Repair Yard not far from Umgul. This attack would serve a dual purpose: on one hand it would not only convince the Republic she wasn't on her way to Dantooine and two she would cripple both a repair yard and a fleet, which would be helpful down the road. Add to that Colonel Venjix's impending attack which she was timing to coincide with her own, and the Republic leadership would be having a very bad day.

And that wasn't even including the plan Judicar left for her in his holologs.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Judicar++++++++++++++++++++

As Judicar stepped out of the refresher and back into the square, he had to hide a smirk: The Jedi Council had come out to finally face him while he had been taking care of personal matters. Masters Atris, Vrook, and Vhar were there physically, but masters Vash, Ell, and Kavar were there using holoscreens. It was only during the mental roll call did Judicar notice how a number of Master's names started with the letter V.

"Is this an intervention, because I quit spice years ago." He sarcastically said as he approached, before pacing left and right, looking the masters in the eye. After a looking at all the masters, he stepped back a bit so that he can address them all, noting that many of the Jedi at the Enclave had gathered to watch. He was also pleased to note that Bastila was still there, he had been wondering if she would watch.

"Jedi Ogden, you have been summoned before the council to answer for your crimes against it, including deliberately disobeying the direct order not to get involved with the Mandalorian conflict, refusing the requests of the order to return, and turning to the dark side and attempting to conquer the Republic." Vrook stated in that annoying tone of his.

"I've been summoned? Wow, if what I got put through on Taris is a summoning, I'd hate to see what happens to those you don't like." He shot back.

"You've always been arrogant, and that obviously hadn't changed much. Now you must see that no matter what you do, the dark side won't be enough to stop the Jedi and Republic from defeating you." Atris said.

"Oh, whatever could you mean?" he asked, innocently, his attitude obviously beginning to annoy some of the council members, but they maintained a calm front while in the presence of the Jedi.

"We were able to lure you into a trap, wound, and then capture you. In time we will no doubt be able to capture your Master as well." Master Vhar replied.

"But the council recognizes that Revan is someone difficult so say no to, especially given your long time friendship. As you no doubt have guessed the Republic Senate would very much like to get their hands on you have try you in a very public setting. However, we can guarantee that you will not be subjected to that if you agree to help us capture Revan and end the Sith threat." Vander said causing murmurs from some of the Jedi who weren't sure if that was a wise thing to do. Judicar lowered his head, looking at the ground as though thinking about the offer.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++BASTILA+++++++++

Bastila watched with shock as it appeared Judicar was actually thinking over the deal being offered to him.

"I'll take the deal." Bastila's jaw literally dropped as Judicar said those four words, but then he finished what he wanted to say. "Provided that one of the Jedi Master's physically here repeats the offer."

Uneasiness radiated from the Masters for a moment before it was quickly shut out, but not before everyone was able to feel it, causing confusion in the ranks. Judicar for his part looked up at them, breaking out in a grin.

"Very underhanded and dishonest, I love it." Judicar looks around at the assembled Jedi Knights. "You know what they tried to do? They had the deal relayed over the holonet, where I couldn't tell if It was a lie or not. But if they had to say it in person, we could all tell the lie in a heartbeat. Not that you'd need Jedi Powers to tell it was bogus. I'm not stupid, The Jedi relations with the Republic is at an all time low, given the councils refusal to join in the Mandalorian Wars and how long it took you to join in the Jedi Civil War. If you withheld turning me over to them they would become suspicious of the Order and begin restricting your funds and privileges until you turned me over. But since rumor says you're not stupid you probably already know that."

Both Vrook and Atris were having difficulties keeping their faces at being insulted, but Kavar kept a straight face and noticed something about what he said.

"Rumor has it"? That's an interesting phrase. You trained under most of us, and those of us you haven't trained under have trained your allies. So why did you use that phrase, especially since you've been captured by a Republic strike team?"

Judicar grinned and Bastila knew that his finale was about to come.

"You're strike team was comprised of 20 troops: 8 Assault droids, 7 Jedi Knights, and 5 Republic commandos. They were dispatched from a Republic ship and arrived on Taris in "The Meadow", which was a modified Twi'lek shuttle. The Strike Team stayed in apartment 4305 on the floor above for 3 days before they struck. Now the question is, why would I allow myself to fall into such a trap if I obviously knew so much about it?" He asked, removing his stun cuffs and tossing them aside as he talked. Many of the Jedi became worried and some grabbed their lightsabers, an action that was mimicked by half the Jedi Masters.

"The reason I did so was so you could bring me right to your living room: See, I'm a show-man I put on big productions and you just gave me a big audience. And the every good show needs a good build-up." He said as he turned and pointed towards the shuttle that had brought him to the planet and his Force Presence flared up. Seconds later a sense of panic began to erupt from the direction of the shuttle, and some of the Jedi in the back rows began to head to the shuttle to try and break up the fight that had just broken out.

"Hypnosis combined with a very slight application of Force suggestion can be a very useful. But small time tricks like that don't entertain for long, so let's move on to the Big Time." He said, throwing his hands out, just as the Republic ship in orbit exploded. Before anyone could react a dozen dark Jedi appeared on the walls above the enclave and jumped down onto the Jedi Knights. As the Jedi began to ignite their sabers and began to fight off the Dark Jedi.

As Bastila prepared to join in the battle another Dark Jedi jumped down and stood behind Judicar, passing him a lightsaber. She could feel that this new man was very different from the other Dark Jedi she encountered, the feeling she got told her that this man was most defiantly a Sith Lord.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Magnus+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Judicar's arm looked like it was a bit roughed up, he looked like he needed a shave but other than that he looked more or less ok. Judicar turned on the lightsaber he had been passed and twirled it experimentally before glancing back at him.

"Magnus, long time no see."

"At least a year, back on Argolis." Judicar chuckled.

"That's a week I'll never remember. What are you doing here? Where's Revan, I thought she would be hear saving me."

"A lot of the readers thought she'd be here to, but she's off making offensives against the Republic Fleets." Judicar started to nod in response, but paused and looked at him.

"Readers? What are you talking about?" Magnus made a motion that said "I'll tell you later" as he lit his pair of Lightsabers and held them up his defensive stances: a pair of Sith Lords vs. A trio of Jedi Masters.

+++++++Judicar++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

This wasn't going to be an easy fight. Vrook was a very competent duelist; Atris wasn't as skilled but would put up a decent effort. He didn't know how good Vhar was but he wouldn't have been made a Master if he didn't have significant skill as a duelist. Add to that his left arm wasn't completely healed and alone he wouldn't have much chance. With Magnus as backup they might be able to escape. However, for his plan to work, he would need to get Bastila.

Vrook launched himself at the Sith Lords, with Vhar and Atris right behind him. Judicar broke off to fight Vrook while Magnus dealt with the other two. Blocking a strike and jumping onto the fountain, Judicar cast Force lightning at Vrook, but was forced back with a shove of Force push energy. As Vrook jumped over the fountain Judicar surprised him by pulling him in with The Force, dropkicking him as he got near.

Magnus meanwhile was holding off Atris and Vhar nicely, trying to get them in the direction of the same fountain Judicar and Vrook were just at. Once they were close, he used the Force to propel Vhar into Atris, sending them into the water and then channeled Force Lightning into the water, shocking them both and leaving them unconscious in the water.

Glancing around Judicar found that despite the superior skill of the Dark Jedi, the far superior numbers of the Jedi Order were looking to difficult to overcome. Grabbing Vrook's face and introducing it to the wall, he ran over to Magnus.

"Got an escape route planned?" Magnus nodded and pressed a button on a comlink. Within moments a shuttle began approaching. Magnus and Judicar both began to run over to it, but Judicar slowed down when he spotted someone he wanted to talk to.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++BASTILA++++++++++++++

Out of breath from battling the Dark Jedi, Bastila spotted Judicar approaching her out of the corner of her eye. As she turned to face him, suddenly his knee found its way to her stomach, knocking what little breath she had gotten out of her. She gasped desperately for new breath when Judicar placed his hand on the back of her head and she felt his Force presence increase over her: the last thing she remembered was darkness filling her vision.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++Magnus++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Magnus watched as Judicar hoisted the unconscious Jedi over his shoulder before following him to the shuttle he had used to bring him and his men to the surface. Unfortunately only one of the Dark Jedi that had accompanied him was able to return: the rest having been killed during the fight. As the shuttle approached the Dreadnaught, the pilot tosses something to the Dark Jedi, who held it out to his Master.

Magnus took the device and looked back at the planet's surface before pressing the button, detonating the bombs they had planted before springing their trap. As he felt the shock, confusion, anger, and loss of life in the Force, he turned to look at Judicar, who was passed out asleep, his prisoner next to him, her Jedi robes having been fastened like a straight jacket.

I hope you like this chapter. Please read and review. I hope to have the next one up soon. I don't plan on it being very big so it shouldn't take long: in fact I'll probably start it after dinner. But I do promise something shocking will happen in the next chapter.


	6. Eternus Vires

Sorry it took so long to belt this one out. Writers block.

Revan sighed in relief once she received the message that Magnus had rescued Judicar, and that Bastila was back in Sith custody. She had been surprised that the Padawan had been taken captive in the way she had, but given the circumstances they had to make do with what they had. She was still slightly dismayed that she hadn't located the planet that Bella was located, but she had ascertained that it was on a Republic controlled planet whose very name was classified above top secret. She had all of their Sith spies searching for any information they could regarding the mysterious planet. They still had some time before they rendezvoused on Korriban, so she was confident that she'd have at least something to show him.

She couldn't shake the feeling, however, that the trip to the Sith Academy would not be a simple one. She wasn't sure if it was a feeling she was getting from the Force, or her own worries. She hoped it wasn't a sign of something to come.

************************************************Judicar*******************************

Stretching, Darth Judicar walked out of the refresher and headed to his dresser. After having been brought to his quarters, he had spent a couple hours in a healing trance and felt great. After shaving and cleaning up, he got dressed. They had found robes in his size, but they couldn't do anything about his mask. Looks like he would be without it for another day or so, but that was a nothing matter.

After dressing, he walked onto the bridge to see Magnus. However he didn't walk straight to him, rather waited by the turbolift. This wasn't a ship belonging to the empire he and Revan were putting together, so he would extend courtesy to Magnus by waiting to be seen rather than just walking up to him.

Magnus was formally informed on his presence almost immediately, but that wasn't needed due to him no doubt sense his Force presence. Within a few moments Magnus signaled him to approach.

"So, how long until we arrive at the Star Forge?" Judicar asked as he looked at the equipment. It was very different then the ships turned out by the Star Forge used, different even from the ships they had seen during their time with the True Sith.

"We aren't, forgot to tell you; Revan wanted us to bring you to the Sith Academy on Korriban." Magnus replied as he looked at an interstellar travel map, plotting the best course to the planet. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm feeling better, good night spent sleeping and in a healing trance with a shower and a shave I'm a new man. Korriban huh, well far be it from me to argue with the commands of my Master. Can I ask you about your ship? It looks like it utilizes a different design style then the ships I saw a couple years ago." Magnus nodded and turned to look at him.

"It does. Emperor Vitiate commissioned a new team to completely redesign and construct a new capital ship that would serve as a symbol for our Forces. When my crew and I fled, we stole it. This beauty's packing a lot of hidden surprises, got some nice firepower and the engines are top of the line. I'd bet that anything you have at the Star Forge couldn't match its speed." Judicar gave an impressive whistle as Magnus brought up a list of specs.

"Just imagine what we could do if we get this ship to the Star Forge: the ships it'd turn out would be incredible. We'd have a great shot at taking out the Emperor's forces." Magnus nodded and indicated the map.

"Yeah, so what path should we use to get to Korriban? I want to avoid getting into a fight right now. We're only at half strength at the moment."

"Yeah, I felt that the ship wasn't as full of life as it should be. Ok, let's see...we are here. We should swing by Onderon and loop past it to Korriban."

"That's pretty out of a way. Why do we need to go that far and not just go straight to Korriban?" asked a bridge officer.

"Two reasons, if we go straight to Korriban they could intercept us. If we do a loop around they wouldn't expect we might surprise them. The Onderon's military leader owes me and Revan a couple of favors: he'll tell us if he's heard anything regarding a Republic offensive. Their Queen may not be big fans of ours, but given that Revan and I helped save her from Mandalorians back during the war she can't exactly screw us." Magnus looked at him for a few moments and nodded, signaling the navigation officer to change to the recommended course. "I'm going to go talk to Bastila. Let me know if you need anything."

Magnus watched Judicar head to the turbolift and couldn't help but ask.

"What's so important about that girl? She's not even a full Jedi."

"Because Bastila Shan may just be the biggest advantage we can get against the Emperor."

"Ok but you might be interested in knowing-"the sounds of the turbolift doors closing cut Magnus off. "Ok, I guess he isn't."

*******************************************************BASTILA***************

Bastila's eyes fluttered open and she immediately felt her senses being flooded by Dark Side energies. At first she thought she was still aboard Judicar's ship, the Leviathon, but then she remembered that she had been rescued, and that the energies she sensed felt different then what she felt before. As she looked around she realized that this must have been the ship belonging to the Sith Lord that had helped Judicar escape.

The cell wasn't as nice as the quarters she had been assigned to aboard the Leviathan, but was defiantly better then the cell Judicar had been stuffed in. She could tell that she was more lightly guarded then he was. Instead of being surrounded by dozens of neurodampeners there seemed to be a force field being projected from an unknown spot. She couldn't tell if it was the wall on her side, the wall on the opposite side, or even the floor. If she couldn't find it, she couldn't smash the projector and she would bet that there was a secondary line of defense. She could hear footfalls approaching; it seemed that once again The Judge of The Dark Side was coming to pay her a visit.

"Bastila, we've got to stop meeting like this." Judicar said with a grin as he leaned against the wall.

"You lied to me. You're not doing this to protect the Republic, you're just a power hungry Sith."

"What did I lie about? I didn't lie about anything. Maybe didn't tell the complete truth, but as a Jedi you should know that the truth is a very flexible thing. I saw an opportunity to deal a devastating blow to the biggest threat to a cause I'm putting everything on the line to make. If you have a chance like I did and you don't take it, then every death that happens after that is a parasite eating away at you, trust me on that. It's your duty as a commander to take every chance you can to try and reduce any possible casualties your side might suffer."

Have you looked at the Holonews recently? Their reporting that the Taris defection was a legitimate action: Taris is now a full fledge member of Lord Revan's empire. The Republic orchestrated a special black ops job without even informing the Tarisian leadership. I imagine the Tarisian security forces are developing plans in case the Republic tries to assassinate their leaders and install someone more suitable to their tastes. And if you don't think their capable of that, remember that the Republic has a history of putting together strike teams that have no problem with assassination."

Bastila stared hard at him, she had come close to faltering once but after seeing what he was willing to do, she was going to give it at least one more shot at staying true to the Light Side and the Jedi Code.

"How did your rescue team get to the Enclave without anyone sensing them?" Bastila asked. Judicar grinned a bit more.

"Go back through in your mind, you tell me what happened." Bastila frowned, going over the previous events in her mind and out loud.

"You stood there in the courtyard for two full days while people tried to move you."

Judicar nodded watching her.

"the answer is in there, look below the pretext." Bastila wondered what he meant, trying to think about what he did, then her eyes widen when she remembers something that he did.

"You kept expanding your Force presence. It got to the point that you couldn't ignore the feel of the Dark Side. That's how they snuck up on us: we were so focused on you that we didn't notice new Dark Side presences approaching. Your goons were able to get in because we were looking at you." Judicar began to clap.

"on the nail, sort of. Magnus and his crew aren't members of the Sith Empire I command. He's a breakaway from the True Sith Empire."

Bastila's eyes widen when she hears those words. True she had noticed that the ship's design and the troop's uniforms were different then what she saw on the Leviathan, but it hadn't even occurred to her that could be the reason.

"The proof of what I've been telling you is all around you. You just need to be willing to accept it."

"And if you truly care about the Republic and want to see it survive, you'll cast aside these childish black and white views and join us. With your help we could end the war a lot sooner then we can right now. The sooner this war ends, the sooner we can start fixing the damage caused by the war and repairing the Republic's infrastructure, getting ready for the even worse war that will come when the True Sith invade. If you don't, if you help extend this war and the loss of life, then you're even more of a mons-"

"Darth Judicar, I apologize for interrupting, but Lord Magnus wishes you to know that we are almost at the planet Onderon." Judicar looked at his comlink is disbelief.

"You're kidding. I have this big profound speech planned and I'm only barely into it."

"Apologies, but Lord Magnus requests your presence on the Bridge." Judicar rolled his eyes and gave Bastila a look that said he still had more to say and left.

*******************************MAGNUS***************************************

Magnus nodded as an officer finished his report and he sensed Judicar approaching on the turbolift. Turning around the doors opened up and an annoyed Sith Apprentice stepped out.

"Why didn't you tell we were so close to the planet?" Judicar asked as he approached. Magnus waved him over to a station near the front.

"I tried to tell you before you left but you didn't hear me."

"Well, how could the ship reach Onderon so fast? I know you said this beast is fast but it can't be that fast."

"Well we were pretty close to the planet already when we inputted the coordinates. So that really cuts down on travel time." Magnus said, pointing to a screen. "But that's not what I wanted to show you. Sensors show that some sort of ship is stationed above the planet. What can you tell us about it?"

Judicar sighed and walked over to the screen, leaning over to look at the readouts.

"Ok this could be an issue. If I'm right, and I have a feeling I am, then that's the Republic SuperBattleCruiser "Eternus Vires". Man, this is going to be a tough fight. This thing was designed to break through entire Star Fleets by itself."

"Well why didn't you tell us about it before?" one of the officers asked. Magnus gave the officer a look that cooled him down and turned back to Judicar.

"He's right, when you came to the Empire years ago this ship wasn't one of the ones you mentioned when giving us a report of the Republic's firepower."

"Because when we gave you that report the Eternus Vires was still an idea, a theory, a piece of flimsy with a drawing of a starship on it. Something of this size, just think about it, something as simple as just building this monstrosity should take years. And we're not even talking about getting the fine tuning of the systems and inner workings. They shouldn't even be finished with the design stage yet, I just can't get how that thing could be in front of us." Judicar said, rubbing his eyes, leaning against the console.

"Maybe your padawan friend could help? She might know something." Magnus asked, picking up a datapad. Judicar nodded and headed for the turbolift. After relaying orders to hold position and relay any changes in the ship Magnus followed.

******************************************************BASTILA****************

Bastila sat in her cell, when she heard the doors to the cell block opening up. Shifting in her seat to the door she saw Darth's Magnus and Judicar standing there.

"Bastila, we need to know anything about the Republic ship "Eternus Vires"." Judicar said as he leaned against the force field. Bastila got up from her bed in surprise.

"How do you know that name? that ship is classified above top secret." bastila said.

"Well I was third in command of the entire Republic Fleet for a couple years: Even had command of the second fleet. You're a Jedi rookie with good battle intuition. Chances are I've forgotten more Military Secrets then you'll ever know. Now, that super secret ship is in front of us, so I really want to know everything you know about it." Judicar told her. Bastila's eyes widened.

"that's impossible. The Republic just announced that they had finished detail work on the blueprints and were allocating the funds to have it built."

"Well someone's lying, because it's a light year away orbiting the planet Onderon. And it looks pretty complete. Readouts show that it has power and shields are up." Magnus told her, dropping the force fields and handed her the datapad. Bastila looked at him suspiciously before taking the datapad, her eyes widening even more.

"Now, I regret that I don't have more time to allow you to draw your own conclusions. So, it's pass/fail: are you with us or with the Jedi?"

Bastila bit her lip as she thought, then slowly nodded.

"I'll help you. I don't like it but I'll help you." Judicar and Magnus both nodded and motioned for her to follow them.

******************************RANDOM BRIDGE OFFICER**************************

As Geraldo Vistuwo fed renewed targeting data to the gunnery officers, he looked up and waved to the readers.

**********************************************************JUDICAR************

As the three walked onto the battle bridge they began looking over reports compiled by the ships officers and experts, rather Magnus was looking over the reports and telling Judicar and Bastila what it meant. Judicar was capable of reading most technical readouts, but this ship used Sith symbols which Judicar was still learning.

"Ok so this SuperShip of yours is pretty powerful. Given our ships low crew status it would be tough to fend off an attack. It's got some thick armor and powerful anti-blaster cannon shielding. And if Bastila's right it also has specialized physical shells that have a high chance of penetrating our shields. Ok, so any ideas?"

"yeah, standard Republic boarding tactics for when dealing with a superior ship. We take a shuttle with a small highly equipped team and board; do damage to the ships systems from the inside. We hit the engines, shields, life support and the like. Maybe download their records and find out some secrets, or maybe how they built that beast so soon and find out how to build one ourselves." Judicar suggested. Magnus and Bastila both looked at him with a look of disbelief.

"Ok, that might work. And I assume you want us to be the ones boarding the ship?" Bastila asked. Judicar grinned.

"I can't put anything over on you. So, Magnus, what's your best boarding shuttle?" Magnus sighed and turned to the comsystem, ordering a shuttle to be prepped for immediate departure.

******MAGNUS****************************************************************

As the Sith lords and Bastila held on tight to the shuttle, they watched their pilot bring them towards the ship. So far the Eternus Vires hadn't done anything in response to their approach, not even so much as targeting them. As they increased speed they passed through the shields and targeted a weak spot in the hull. Firing a cluster of proton bombs at the focused point and damaged the hull enough that they were able to charge the shuttle through it and into the ship. opening the hatch Magnus and Judicar jumped out and swung their lightsabers in defensive positions. However, but they quickly found that there were no Republic troops in or around the area. Moving aside to allow Bastila and their pilot to get off they all looked around.

"I've got a bad feeling about this." The pilot said. "Where is everyone? We made a pretty big entrance; they should all be storming down here throwing everything they have at us. At least have a mechanic down here throwing some sonic wrenches at us or something."

"I have to agree with the kamikaze driver. I don't know about you guys but I'm not sensing anyone around here." Judicar said. Magnus and Bastila both nodded in agreement. Bastila downloaded the ship maps from a terminal and began to search for the closest point where they could do some damage. It turned out to be weapons systems only 1 level above and they immediately grabbed their equipment.

"Sorry to say this, but when we leave we need a new way out. The shuttle is lodged in pretty tight, it isn't going anywhere." The pilot said as he examined the shuttlecraft. Two of the three wings of the shuttle were lodged in the surroundings and the other one was broken. Magnus lead the way, with bastila and the pilot following behind him, Judicar bringing up the rear.

"Where is everyone?" Asked Magnus as he checked a corner. "Simple application of logic tells us that there should be no way that the Republic would leave their brand sparkly new ship just sitting above a populated planet with the engine core running and no one here."

Judicar nodded in agreement and was about to turn to catch up when he saw something out of the corner of his eye heading right towards him. Dropping to the floor he avoided getting slashed by a lightsaber, rolling away in the direction of the others. The attacker was a black clad Jedi who was quickly joined by 4 more. Judicar and Magnus glanced at each other: they both clearly felt something was wrong with this situation. How did these Jedi sneak up on them? Now, Judicar and Magnus weren't perfect, but it should be impossible for this many to sneak up on them this effectively.

The group drew their lightsabers and lit them. Judicar went first, with the pilot backing him up. The first thing everyone realized was that the team worked disturbingly well. At the height of the Mandalorian Wars groups of Jedi who had been in combat long periods of time grew to anticipate their comrade's strategy and strikes. But this was something else entirely: They didn't seem to be battle tested, in fact it seemed like they had only training behind them. Intense training to be sure, but when training met experience the guy who had done this before would always come out on top.

But they worked together in a way that was above what could be done even with something as powerful like Battle Meditation. Judicar, one of the most skilled warriors to ever pick up a lightsaber, was barely able to hold his own against a tandem attack. Magnus also fought 2 of the Jedi by himself and was also in a tight spot. Bastila and the pilot took on the last Jedi, but amazingly the Jedi held his own, with one of the currently engaged Jedi even giving small assistance in between strikes. It was amongst the strangest battles any of the Sith group had been involved in.

Jumping back Magnus used the Force to pull the floor away and caused 3 of the Jedi to fall down the hole, covering the hole again with the section of the floor her had just uprooted. With the numbers advantage on their side now, the Sith were able to overwhelm the Jedi, with the Pilot even slicing the arm of one of the Jedi. After that the Jedi were forced to retreat to tend to their injuries before they got worse and to try and regroup with the others.

Gathering their wits and catching their breath, the Sith tried to formulate a new plan.

"Ok, I don't know about you guys, but I don't want to face those guys again." The pilot said, leaning a wall. Judicar and Magnus gave each other a look as Bastila took out her datapad and checked where they were. They were still close to the weapons system they wanted to target, however Magnus noticed they were close to something else they could go after.

"Looks like we could hit the engine core instead, it's only a little farther and we could do a lot more damage." He said, pointing out the location to the group. They were in agreement and quickly began to move out. As they moved Magnus used his comlink to inform the officer currently in command of the Dreadnaught that there were Jedi on board and to be on the lookout for anything odd and immediately report it.

Within 15 minutes they arrived at the engine core controls and began downloading all the data they could, as well as looking for the best way to detonate the core. Noticing that Bastila and their pilot were out of earshot, Judicar turned to Magnus and grabbed his shoulder.

"Those Jedi that attacked us, they moved way to good for my liking. By any chance does this have anything to do with that thing you were telling me about between you and Bella?" Magnus nodded and shrugged Judicar's hand off.

"Yeah, but I but I got to admit I'm surprised they were able to duplicate it. Maybe it has something to do with how this ship got built so fast." Judicar nodded and pulled out the datapad once it finished downloading all the data it could hold. Bastila signaled that they were finished setting up the charges that would damage the core to the point of detonation. After they managed to figure out the most opportune route to the hanger so they could steal a shuttle to get out.

They purposely didn't take the most direct route to the hanger, because they figured that would be the place most likely for the Jedi to run into them. When they were within 1000 yards of the hanger the pilot set the charges, which will go off within 5 minutes. They began to use The Force to increase their speed and cover ground faster. When they were about to enter the hanger, they were ambushed by the Jedi, minus the one wounded before. They didn't have much time left to get to the shuttle, fire it up, and get away from the ship before it exploded. The pilot tossed Judicar his lightsaber and headed to the shuttle to get it warmed up while the others fought off the Jedi.

With just under 2 minutes left Bastila broke off and went to the shuttle. Seconds after she got onto the shuttle Magnus and Judicar threw out massive amounts of Force energy out at the Jedi, sending them back. As they turned to head to the shuttle, one of the Jedi tossed a cluster of plasma grenades at them, causing Magnus to instinctively use the Force to slam the grenades to the floor. When it went off the explosive power destroyed the floor and Judicar, caught off-guard by the sudden explosion, fell through the collapsing floor, where a pair of Jedi went after him. Magnus was about to go in and help him, when he sensed Judicar wanting him to head to the shuttle, that he would find his own way out. Magnus didn't think he could do it, but given the crunch time, he couldn't do anything. Running to the shuttle, he told the pilot to take off.

It took Bastila a few moments to realize they were one short. Just after they left the hanger, she turned to Magnus to ask where Judicar was, but was cut off when the ship began to explode. The shockwave shook the shuttle and it sent bastila to the floor, with Magnus almost joining her in not for his superior training. They both looked out the viewport and watched large sections of the ship fall to the jungle moon of Duxn.

Revan sat at her desk eating dinner as she went over reports regarding Bella. She had finally managed to get not only the planets name, but its location. So when Magnus got back with Judicar and Bastila they'd be able to launch a rescue attempt.

As she got up to get a refill of her drink, emptiness hit her in the stomach like a punch from a wookie, causing her to drop her glass.

Not long after their escape from the Eternus Vires the Dreadnaught arrived over Korriban. Magnus and Bastila went down to the academy using the shuttle they stole and were escorted to Revan's chambers. Revan, as they suspected was standing at the window, trying to keep a lid on her feelings of despair. After a moment she turned to face them.

"Darth Revan, I know we had a deal regarding Darth Judicar, but what happened to hi-"

"I found where Bella is being held at. It's a planet called Belsavis. You fulfilled your end of the bargain when you got Judicar off Dantoonie. What happened after that wasn't your fault. Now please, I'd like to be alone right now." Magnus sighed in relief and left. Bastila slowly followed, but couldn't help but turn for a final look, just in time to see Revan take off her mask and her shoulders beginning to shake.

She had lost one of her best friends to end the last war, and in the course of this one, she lost her last friend. Bastila wondered briefly what else would need to be sacrificed to win this war, and the next one.

Ok, I hope you enjoy this chapter. Credit goes to HubrisP for numerous ideas.

First person to guess the meaning of "Eternus Vires" will get a short message detailing what I intend to do in the next chapter.

Please read and Review. I like reading your reviews. Lets me know I'm doing well.


End file.
